Background

In India, given shortage of trained staff, providing access to healthcare in remote areas and also care shifting from traditional settings like hospital to home, managing patients under treatment and patients recovering say from surgery has gained importance. We are looking at creating probes, through a hands-on design & technology & design thinking driven exploration leading to new usages and design strategy.

Readings/References

Research

Example Products

1. GlowCap
What-
Sends reminders for needed medication. The cap senses the quantity of meds and sends alerts to pharmacy. Blutooth and AT&T cellular based.
Once activated, the plugin reminder light and cap connect to the AT&T Mobile Broadband Network, giving you both light and sound indicators for scheduled medications, vitamins and supplements.

2. ZephyrLIFE
What- ZephyrLIFE™ RPM offers remote capabilities that enhance the level of medical support a patient receives while enabling them to be monitored in the comfort of their home. The BioModule™ device communicates wirelessly, via Android™*-based devices, to provide monitoring from any location where a phone network or data plan connection is available. It provides rapid updates with physiologic alerts based on Clinical-assigned thresholds and integrates with qualified third-party devices to provide measurements for weight, blood pressure, Sp02, blood glucose, and tympanic temperature.

The BioModule™ sensor is wireless and rechargeable and, when combined with the BioModule™ holder and snap ECG electrodes, becomes the BioPatch™ wireless device wireless. At home, it continuously collects a patient’s physiologic data and transmits the data every 60 seconds for the first 15 minutes, thereafter in 15 minute intervals. The BioModule™ device provides a 30-second, single-lead ECG that records either automatically or on demand when a patient’s heart or respiration rate crosses clinician-assigned thresholds.

D.I.Y. Projects

Bio-Sensors

Heart Rate and Pulse

Heart rate is the speed of the heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute (bpm). The heart rate can vary according to the body's physical needs, including the need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide. It is usually equal or close to the pulse measured at any peripheral point. Activities that can provoke change include physical exercise, sleep, anxiety, stress, illness, and ingestion of drugs.

A pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck (carotid artery), on the inside of the elbow (brachial artery), at the wrist (radial artery), at the groin (femoral artery), behind the knee (popliteal artery), near the ankle joint (posterior tibial artery), and on foot (dorsalis pedis artery). Pulse (or the count of arterial pulse per minute) is equivalent to measuring the heart rate.

Muscle

Muscle sensor or Electromyography.
Electromyography (EMG) is a diagnostic procedure to assess the health of muscles and the nerve cells that control them (motor neurons). Motor neurons transmit electrical signals that cause muscles to contract. An EMG translates these signals into graphs, sounds or numerical values that a specialist interprets.

Temperature

Blood Glucose

The blood glucose level is the amount of glucose in the blood. Glucose is a sugar that comes from the foods we eat, and it's also formed and stored inside the body. It's the main source of energy for the cells of our body, and it's carried to each cell through the bloodstream.